Track x Track: Evolfo Breaks Down Their New LP, Last of the Acid Cowboys

The best sort of music, at least for my money, is transportive and illuminates landscapes, real and otherwise, in the mind’s eye. Blending elements of psych, soul and garage rock, the Brooklyn-based Evolfo pull up with a spot in the van just for you as they take off on the adventure that is Last of the Acid Cowboys.

The album is out today via Royal Potato Family and to celebrate we had the band break it down for us track by track. Stream Evolfo’s Last of the Acid Cowboys below while reading the responses below and be sure to order your copy of the LP here.

Rafferty Swink (Organ/2nd Vocals) brought in the idea for “Vision of Sin” after he had a particularly vivid dream about playing a music festival. He said the opening drums were circulating in his head while a demon lady spun around like a dervish in the front row. This song is reckless and puts our polyamorous genre relationship on display. Bombast AND groove all in one song! A deal you can’t beat! BUY THIS DANG CAR ALREADY! – Matt Gibbs (Guitar/Vocals)

“Moon Eclipsed the Sun”

This is one of the first songs we wrote for Last of the Acid Cowboys and was the first one we released as a taste of what was to come next. I’ve called this one a psychedelic-murder-ballad in the past, because it is. But I didn’t want to paint the whole picture with words alone so we wrote a longish instrumental bridge section, I feel like that says more than the lyrics do. When I’m writing lyrics, I always feel that there’s an impossibly thin line between too vague and too much. I think it’s much easier to say stuff with instrumentals than with words, the feeling is more distinct. Or possibly with “ooo’s” sung silkily by the ever sensual Joe Harrison. – Matt Gibbs (Guitar/Vocals)

“Science”

The genesis of the idea for this song grew in a familiar setting, while I sat on my bed in my childhood home. I wrote the bass riff for the verses unplugged and recorded it to a voice memo on my phone. Together, the band steered that idea into the weird horror-psych beat that led to the rest of the song. For those of you keeping track of your Evolfo trivia: this is our first recorded release completely devoid of our horn section. There’s an alternate arrangement performed live that replaces the spacey delay throws in the “bridge” with large, BLASTY, viking horn chords. A sound to behold. The outro makes me think of alchemy and wizards – Ronnie Lanzilotta (Bass)

“Bloody Bloody Knife”

This one is about guilt I think and feeling guilty about everything. You know like when you have a Facebook and you open it up and all of a sudden you’re taking in the whole world’s troubles. Watching your friends make posts literally crying out for help and people are sharing crowdfunding campaigns that exist because of some horrible tragedy. We should definitely contribute to worthy causes and be there for our friends that are going through some shit, but it’s a whole lot to have on your conscience sometimes. So anyway, the Bloody Bloody Knife!

This song is also super addicting to play. When I first wrote it, I’m sure I was driving my roommates insane looping those chords for a while. – Matt Gibbs (Guitar/Vocals)

“Don’t Give Up Your Mind”

I wrote this song in 2012 I believe, which makes it the oldest song on the record, by far. Having lived with it for the better part of five years now, I definitely have a love/hate relationship with it. We recorded it in the summer of 2013, released it as a single, but then ultimately decided that it wasn’t a good representation of our sound. During the planning stages of recording Last of the Acid Cowboys, someone had the idea to throw it back into the mix. We did a complete makeover of the song, slowed it down, and I rewrote the chorus. Now I’m very happy it’s around and treasure it as one of the only slower moments on the LP. – Rafferty Swink (Organ/Vocals)

Luv Like a Freak

“Luv Like a Freak” captures the fleeting, frantic nature of our former selves. Our roots are based in high energy funk and groove, and this song in particular takes us all back to those formidable basement shows. The horns were recorded with an Electro Voice RE-17 and a gnarly ribbon mic combo that gives them their dusty flavor. This song almost didn’t make the cut because we didn’t think it was a large enough departure from the “old sound” we were working away from, but at the end of the day, nobody could deny it. Matt would tell you that this track gives you the best look at our cheeks. All of ‘em. – Kai Sorensen (Trumpet)

“Rat City”

It’s a love song to the place where we met and formed our band: Allston, MA. Allston is Rat City. This is a fictional Rat City of course, not a perfect Allston, and there is a little bit of a New Yorkishness to this song as well. I mean come on, New York has some serious rats. In my heart, Allston will always be the definitive Rat City. It’s a debaucherous song about turning into a Rat mostly. It’s a fun romp through the sewers.

I can’t wait to finally get the music video for “Rat City” out there, it was crazy fun to film. We made this insanely hideous rat costume and ran around Brooklyn in it. – Matt Gibbs (Guitar/Vocals)

“Frank the Fiddler”

This song is about a ten-foot-tall gorilla sorcerer stomping around the streets of Brooklyn menacingly (think the Super Ape album cover wearing a wizard talisman). He isn’t good or evil, but he usually does right. He detests violence and stops it wherever he can, but also causes destruction because he’s a ten-foot-tall gorilla. So you better run! – Rafferty Swink (Organ/Vocals

“Last of the Acid Cowboys”

When I wrote this song I didn’t know it would become the title of our record, or an aesthetic we would embrace. It all started with the guitar/organ riff. From that riff, an entire world blossomed in my mind and the song came together very quickly. It’s the story of a dusty wayfaring stranger wandering the desert in search of something he can’t define. It’s sort of my fictional genesis story and ode to Townes Van Zandt. Not to his life, but more to his spirit and how I imagine his art, personified. – Rafferty Swink (Organ/Vocals)

“Peachy”

“Peachy” is our chance to slow it down on the album with a dusty ballad. The image what we had in our minds was a glowing orange sunset that would close out the album on a somber and nostalgic note.

It’s probably the most sonically experimental and unique sounding track on the record with tango drum machine loops and dense rich harmonic horn solis. Lyrically it focuses mainly on the demise of youth and implies a not so sunny end to the acid cowboys journey. – Ben Adams (Trombone/Guitar)

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About The Author

Mike is a graduate of the School Of Visual Arts with a BFA in Film & Video focused on screenwriting. His career stops have included editing positions at AOL, The Huffington Post, and BuzzFeed. He regularly contributes to a variety of outlets. Follow him @mmehalick